It has its origin in the expelled Internationalist Bolshevik Faction of the Movement for Socialism (MAS). MAS was the Argentine section of the International Workers League (IWL-FI). The Internationalist Bolshevik Faction regarded itself initially as an "external fraction" of the MAS/IWL-FI who had been wrongly expelled, and demanded the overturning of its expulsion.
The Internationalist Bolshevik Faction became the Socialist Workers' Party (PTS) in 1988.[2] In 1989 the Partido Obrero Socialista (POS) in Mexico, later renamed Liga de Trabajadores Socialistas (LTS), was also expelled from the IWL-FI.[3] The PTS and the POS founded the Internationalist Faction of the IWL-FI (IFIWL-FI) in 1989.[4]
From 1988 to 1990 the PTS had three splits: first when a number of militants returned to the Argentinian Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, then when another group of militants sympathized with the British Workers Revolutionary Party (Worker Press) and the third when supporters of León Pérez (former member of the International Secretariat of the IWL-FI) decided to follow a mass party perspective (as opposed to a vanguard party).
These splits forced the PTS to make a balance and self-criticism. This resulted in a further development. The PTS and the IFIWL-FI questioned the "update" of the Transitional Program that Nahuel Moreno, the leader of the IWL-FI, had made (his so-called theory of "Democratic Revolution").[5] The PTS and the IFIWL-FI regarded Moreno's update as an "anti-Trotskyist revision" of Leon Trotsky's Theory of Permanent Revolution.[6] The PTS and the IFIWL-FI broke with Moreno's political tradition/heritage, ideology (termed Morenoism) and tendency (the IWL-FI).[7] The IFIWL-FI was renamed Internationalist Faction.
In 1996 the Trotskyist Fraction - International Strategy was founded. By 2004 it consisted of [8] the PTS of Argentina, the LTS of Mexico (current name MTS), the LOR-CI of Bolivia,[9] the Estratégia Revolucionaria, current name Movimento Revolucionário de Trabalhadores (MRT), of Brazil and the Clase contra Clase, current name Partido de Trabajadores Revolucionarios (PTR), of Chile as well as some militant sympathizers in Europe. In 2004, in its second international conference, the Trotskyist Fraction - International Strategy decided to change its name to Trotskyist Fraction - Fourth International (TF-FI).[8] Following the economic crisis and demonstrations in several countries, the TF-FI grew in Latin America and Europe, and its manifesto of 2013 called for the formation of a new grouping: An International Movement for a Socialist Revolution - Fourth International.[10] The manifesto was updated in 2021,[11][12] due to new developments in the international arena.
The Organización Socialista Revolucionaria (Costa Rica), the Frazione Internazionalista Rivoluzionaria (Italy), and the Corriente Socialista de las y los Trabajadores (Peru) became full sections of the TF-FI after endorsing the TF-FI manifesto of 2013.[11]
France Groupe Communiste Revolutionaire Internationaliste (Revolutionary Internationalist Communist Group) (CRI) - They were admitted in 2008 as sympathiser section of TF-FI,[24] but after the creation of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) they decided to dissolve within the CLAIRE Tendency of the NPA (acronym for "Tendency for Communism and self-organized, internationalist and revolutionary struggle").[25][26] Later, in 2010, the TF-FI militants and the CLAIRE-tendency created "The Collective for a Revolutionary Tendency" inside NPA, which was dissolved after NPA's first congress (February 10 - February 13 2011).[27] In April 2011 the "Revolutionary Communist Current" (CCR) was officially founded by the TF-FI militants,[28][29] after leaving the CLAIRE-tendency in February 13 2011.[30] The CCR was expelled from the NPA in June 2021.[31] In December 2022 the CCR became the Révolution Permanente, the current section of the TF-FI.[32]
Costa Rica Socialist Revolution League (Liga de la Revolución Socialista) (LRS) - Admitted in 2008 as full section,[24] but they dissolved in 2014.
^ ab"Se realizó la Segunda Conferencia de la FT". www.ft.org.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-07-12. En este sentido, y dado los avances de los distintos grupos de la FT expresados más arriba, en la conferencia discutimos 'cambiarnos el nombre, llamarnos Fracción Trotskista-Cuarta Internacional (FT-CI) para indicar la relación que hay entre nuestro carácter de tendencia actual y nuestro objetivo de trabajar día a día... hacia la reconstrucción de la Cuarta Internacional'
^"Tesis de la LOR-CI sobre Bolivia. Página 1" (in Spanish). 2009-10-24. Archived from the original on 2009-10-24. Retrieved 2018-07-12. Reivindicamos y hacemos nuestro por ello el "Manifiesto Programático" de la FT de febrero de 1998 y las principales elaboraciones planteadas en la revista Estrategia Internacional (especialmente desde marzo de 1998 hasta la fecha) sobre la crisis capitalista internacional y el programa necesario para responder a la misma, la situación de los ex estados obreros deformados y degenerados, las potencialidades y límites de la lucha campesina, la reivindicación de la centralidad revolucionaria del proletariado, así como una posición e intervención común ante la guerra de los Balcanes.
^ ab"Gran acto de cierre de la V Conferencia Internacionalista" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-07-17. A su vez, se anunció la incorporación de la LRS de Costa Rica como sección plena de la FT en ese país centroamericano, y del Grupo CRI como sección simpatizante de la FT-CI en Francia.
^Francia, FT-CI. "Carta desde Francia". www.ft-ci.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-07-12. Ustedes informan especialmente sobre los análisis y el combate llevado adelante por los firmantes del proyecto de Tendencia que defiende el Comunismo, la Revolución y la Autoorganización (convertida el 14 de febrero en Tendance CLAIRE del NPA – Por el Comunismo, la Lucha Autoorganizada, Internacionalista y Revolucionaria). Ustedes mencionan correctamente que el Groupe CRI ha sido quien propuso este proyecto de Tendencia. Pero ustedes omiten aclarar que el Groupe CRI es, en Francia, la sección simpatizante de la FTCI (de la que el PTS es la sección argentina).